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rep

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Pronunciation

Etymology

It is a clipping, at different times, of reputation, repetition, representative and repertory.[2][3][4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Reputation: before 1705 in the OED, 1705 in Etymonline,[3][2] where upon rep, “I swear it”, was common 18th-century slang.[3][2] MWU dates this sense to 1677.[6]

Semantic evolution

As short for repetition, a piece learned by heart, it is school slang from 1864, and a single repetition of an exercise in body-building from 1953.[3][2] As short for representative, especially a sales representative, it is from 1896 (MWU has 1789),[3][2][6] and the verb, to act as a representative, from before 1961.[3] As short for repertory, a repertory company or theatre, it is from 1925, first American.[7][3][2] In the 18th century rep also meant a person of loose character (1747), perhaps short for reprobate.[3][5]

Timeline

  • a1705 – reputation.[3]
  • 1747 – a loose-living person.[3]
  • 1864 – repetition (school slang).[3]
  • 1896 – a representative.[3]
  • 1925 – repertory.[3][7]
  • 1953 – a repetition of an exercise.[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. (informal) A representative, especially a sales representative.
  2. (informal) A single performance of an exercise, counted in a set.
  3. (informal) Repertory, or a repertory company or theatre.
  4. (informal, chiefly US) Reputation.

Verb

  1. (informal) To act as a representative for a company or product.

Word family

  • repped
  • sales rep

Usage notes

Rep, also spelled repp, a fabric with a ribbed surface (1860), is a different word, from French reps, of unknown origin;[3][2][4] MWU and Collins suggest French reps is from English ribs.[6][8] Rep is also an abbreviation of roentgen equivalent physical, an old unit of radiation dose (1947).[3][9]

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  8. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin